APFT exploring air charter business
Company also plans to dispose of non-profitable enterprises
PETALING JAYA: APFT Bhd plans to sell non-profitable businesses and expand into air charter services to turn around, according to newly appointed executive director Edwin Silvester Das.
This is part of the restructuring that APFT, a loss making concern, has embarked on since August this year
“We are looking into new areas of businesses within the aviation industry ... We also need to sell the loss making business and cut cost,” he told StarBiz.
Das, a former investment banker, was appointed executive director of APFT on Aug 2. In September, Goh Boon Soo @ Goh Yang Eng emerged as major shareholder of the company with a 10.43% stake.
Apart from Das, three new directors – Chow Hung Keey, Tengku Shamsulbhari Tengku Azman Shah and Datin Anizah Musa – were appointed to APFT board as there has been a string of board resignations including that of executive chairman Datuk Faruk Othman and his son Arif Othman.
APFT was listed on Bursa Malaysia in 2011 and it is involved in the business of providing flight training for students for jets and helicopters.
It has since moved its flight school from Kota Bahru to Ipoh.
“We are a niche player in helicopter training and have been training pilots for jets for a long time.
“We have no plans to shut down the pilot training school but will defer the training until the restructuring is completed.
“We expect the restructuring to be completed at its earliest in six months,” he pointed out.
Das said APFT has 25 single and twin-engine aircraft that can seat four to eight people, and three helicopters that could be used for the air charter services into the region.
“We want to get into new businesses in the aviation field and air charter is an area of growth. We are currently in talks with a few international parties for a tie-up to offer air charter in the region as our planes have a three-hour flying radius.
“It is still in preliminary stages and we will need to get the necessary approvals before we proceed,” he adds.
He said APFT had yet to decide on a suitable base for the air charter business.
Faruk, 69, has been instrumental in the flight training school but has been selling down his stake for some time now. The stake has been reduced to 7.11%.
Last week he resigned as executive chairman of APFT as he no longer is a major shareholder and he claimed he had “no control over financial and operational management of the company.”’
He was alleged to have disagreements with Das over his son Arif’s resignation from the subsidiary companies which were not effected by the company secretary on “Das’ instruction, which were awaiting Companies Commission of Malaysia confirmation on their resignation.”
When asked about the alleged disagreements, Das said: “I do not have any dispute with him. I work cordially with everyone, I am here to do a job.”
Last week, APFT entered into an agreement to sell APFT Maintenance Training to Paradigm Portfolio for RM20,000. The external auditors of APFT, Messrs Raki CS Tan & Ramanan have also resigned.
APFT reported a RM9.5mil net loss for the nine months ended April 30, 2017 on the back of a RM50.4mil turnover. It share price remained unchanged at 2.5 sen last Friday.